Webster's College Dictionary adds selfie, hashtag in first update since 1999

Fifth edition is available this month

Clint Davis, Scripps National Desk

3:52 PM, Aug 14, 2014

7:09 AM, Aug 15, 2014

Two women pose for a 'selfie' during a world record attempt at the longest selfie during a 'You Beauty' campaign consumer event at XXX on May 16, 2014 in Sydney, Australia.

Brendon Thorne

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It’s a new world, indeed.

It’s been 15 years since publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt updated its Webster's New World College Dictionary, and a lot has changed since 1999.

According to a release from the Associated Press, the publisher is launching only the fifth edition of that language glossary since the 1930s. It will be available Aug. 26.

Among the book’s nearly 5,000 new words will be social media terms like selfie and hashtag, according to the AP’s preview. The New World College Dictionary is the official dictionary referenced by the AP Stylebook, a manual for journalists across the world.

The recently published 2014 AP Stylebook also added selfie as a new entry, as well as emoji, Snapchat and Vine.

Webster’s New World College Dictionary is “thoroughly reviewed and revised by an expert editorial staff,” according to the AP. It also boasts itself as the “most up-to-date college dictionary available on the market.”

The website for competitor Oxford Dictionaries prompted eye-rolls from language scholars this week when it added several new terms including side-boob, binge-watch and Yolo. The words were added to the company’s online dictionary only, rather than their printed Oxford English Dictionary, according to The Telegraph.

Other terms added to the latest Webster’s New World College Dictionary include deleverage and niqab.